The present invention relates to a miniature reaction container and methods and apparatus for introducing micro volumes of liquids to such a container, and its aim is to enable reactions to be conducted with micro volumes of liquid reactants, reagents and samples, more particularly, for the purposes of chemical, biochemical or biological assays which comprise a series of steps involving the production of a reaction mixture of precise micro volumes of liquids.
In assay procedures for measuring the quantity of a particular substance in a biological fluid, a precise volume of a sample is mixed with predetermined volumes of reactants and reagents. Thus, such procedures require a series of steps in which accurate volumes of liquids must be dispensed.
Automatic apparatus is available for performing these procedures although this apparatus is generally designed for dealing with large numbers of assays and is often not well suited, both in terms of time and expense, for performing individual or small numbers of assay reactions. Furthermore, such automatic apparatus is rarely adapted to analyse small samples and often uses relatively large volumes of reactants and reagents.
Some reactants, such as artificial enzyme substrates, used in assay procedures are extremely expensive and, moreover, the amount of a sample, such as body fluid, available for assaying may be very limited. Accordingly, there is a demand for a technique which will enable assay procedures or other reactions to be conducted with minute or micro volumes of reactants, reagents and samples. There is also a demand for a technique which will allow individual or small numbers of reactions to be performed and which does not require very complex apparatus or a high degree of skill and expertise on the part of an operator, whilst at the same time offering economies in the use of reactants and reagents.